The Oscar Game: You Join For Free But Pay AMPAS To Keep Playing
You can join the Oscar game for free. It says so at Number 9 in the Frequently Asked Questions attached to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ official submission form: “There are no entry fees to submit films in any Academy Awards category.”
But that doesn’t mean you won’t be making substantial payments to AMPAS before the votes are counted.
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In keeping with an overall effort to diversify its revenue stream — away from heavy reliance on income from ABC’s domestic Oscar broadcast, and toward sources as varied as red carpet access fees, a Rolex sponsorship and museum merchandise sales — the Academy has quietly been tapping contenders by increasing online mailing list and digital screening fees. And those have grown enough lately to grab the attention of cost-weary campaigners, particularly among those associated with smaller independent films, titles vying for Best International Feature and lower-budget documentaries.
One such person, who spoke anonymously to protect relations with the Academy, recently decried the fees as an element in what has been called Hollywood’s “eblast industrial complex.”
In recent weeks, debate has centered on a new, simpler, one-price for any mailing cost structure under which the Academy has effectively doubled some of the fees it charged contenders under an old multi-tiered price schedule for access to its membership list. At the same time, it left other charges unchanged, while actually lowering its price in a top tier. That occurred in the move to a flat fee from fees that were loosely keyed to the size of a mailing.
The net effect in the current pre-nominations period — a higher rate will prevail after the nominations —has been to raise the Academy’s access fee for a single email blast targeting its Documentary branch, for instance, to $500 from $250 last year, while lowering the cost of a mailing to the full membership to $500 from $750 last year, and leaving unchanged the price of a blast to five or more branches but less than the full membership, at $500.
After the nominations are announced, the Academy fee for each blast will double to $1,000.
Those amounts could seem trivial when compared to the total cost of making and marketing even a low-budget film. But digital mailing costs escalate rapidly as campaigners attempt to communicate with those who will vote in vital awards contests.
Academy officials declined comment on their fee schedules.
Various guilds, for their part, charge their own fees for access to their digital mailing lists. This year, for instance, the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, and Writers Guild of America East/West each charge a $1,000 fee to each guild-approved awards campaign, according to a current mailing house price list.
But the Academy’s fee income per film is almost certain to be higher than that of the guilds, because it charges not per campaign, but per blast, and per title.
Oscar campaign rules permit multiple communications with AMPAS members, both before and after the nominations. Thus a campaign might send a “watch now” email blast advising of online screener availability; another with a link to a version subtitled in one or another language; others with invitations to “For Your Consideration” events; another with a link to a virtual Q&A; another with an attached screenplay; and yet another with an attached song and score.
The combined Academy access fees for 10 blasts, half before and half after the nominations, would be $7,500 — all for access to the same membership list.
But access fees are only part of the picture. The Academy requires that all members go through one of three approved mailing houses: Elite Logistics and Fulfillment, HazMatMedia or Vision Media Management & Fulfillment. And those mailing houses, of course, charge a “send fee.” According to one of the accredited mailing house this year, a digital communication sent to 6,000-plus people costs $1,250, per its current price list. It also adds a $50 charge pre-nominations, and $100 post-nominations, for collecting and remitting the Academy list-fee.
In sum, a single post-nominations mailing to the Academy’s 10,000 or so members would cost $2,350, all in.
Those charges come atop the price of posting a feature For Your Consideration on the Academy’s own Academy Screening Room site for members. Last year, the ASR basic charge rose 60 percent, from $12,500 to $20,000, where it remains today. To post a watermarked version costs an additional $5,000. Films with a budget of less than $10 million get a discounted rate for posting — just $8,000.
Although some filmmakers find the mailing fees burdensome, those actually arose from an attempt to ease the stress on smaller film campaigners, who found it difficult to maintain their own private membership lists as the Academy began a rapid expansion in 2015. AMPAS first began selling access to its list in the 2018-2019 awards season, and added its digital screening room option the next year.
People familiar with Academy policy over the years say the charges for those services have been designed not to turn a “profit” (after all, the Academy remains a nonprofit organization), but rather to cover the cost of services it provides in presenting the Oscars.
In any case, the fees have made an impact on the group’s bottom line. In fiscal 2018, which ended on June 30 of that year, the Academy showed just $4 million in “miscellaneous income,” a category that lumped fees with theater rentals and dues. By fiscal 2022, the last year for which figures are publicly available, miscellaneous income had more than tripled to $13.1 million, even as theater rentals slid during the lockdown and dues income evened out.
Thus, contenders are contributing a growing share of that new, more diversified revenue stream.
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